Trelldom - …by the word… (2026)

After shocking their Black Metal fans in 2024 with “...by the Shadows…”, Trelldom is back with more of that enigmatic Avant-garde Metal music. Featuring seven tracks and nearly 40-minutes of highly engaging and challenging music, Gaahl unleashes a very unique and lush aural experience that will certainly be loved by the fans of their last album, but will fall flat on the crowd that would be expecting BM out of this release.

Opening with the solemn “When This Was Young”, we instantly get those Avant-garde elements that made their 2024 so good. There are plenty of different instruments that masterfully interplay with atmospherics and Gaahl’s clean vocals and whispers. The release continues to sink its teeth into the listener with the maddening saxophones of “I Speak Forgotten Voices”, and the crafty and hectic tempo changes of “This Moment the Life of a Memory”, which features very interesting riffs and a very playful pace.

Showcasing the band’s range, “By the World” creates a very engaging interplay between haunting clean vocals and some fierce guitar riffing, beautifully flanked by some crazy saxophone lines. The band does a great job in creating similar dissonant spaces on songs like “Folding the Mind” and “The Word Choose to Vanish”, allowing the listener to be uncomfortable and yet familiar with their new sound.

While “...by the word…” is not a Black Metal release by far, there is still something chilling and haunting about how Trelldom creates music, point in case the eerie closer “In the Outside”. With this release coming two years after their return after over a decade, the songs feel more settled and are better at incorporating Kjetil Møster talents into the overall aural experience. If you like weird and challenging music, this release delivers it in droves, if you are just looking for traditional BM, probably stay away from this one.

Rating: 96/100